Irix 30mm F/1.4 - Fast Wide Angle DSLR Lens

Irix announced earlier today a new fast full-frame stills lens for DSLR cameras. This is certainly an interesting move in a time when the entire industry is moving into mirrorless cameras.

The new Irix 30mm f/1.4

DSLR vs. Mirrorless

Looking at the camera industry in late 2021 we can see that most manufacturers either stopped making DSLR cameras or will soon do so. Although no official word was given it looks clear that both Canon and Nikon will not make any new DSLR cameras and are putting all their R&D into Mirrorless. Sony, Panasonic, and Olympus have moved to mirrorless years ago.

Maybe the only company around that is still fully committed at this point to DSLR is Pentas although its market share is so small that it can hardly justify a new lens from a 3’rd party manufacturer.

So why does Irix came out with this new lens? To us, the answer is clear – although there will likely not be any new DSLRs from the big brands in the future, there are still a lot of existing DSLR users and they are not going anywhere.

DSLRs can last for years and so the market for lenses for these cameras is not going away and Irix understands that and this is where the Irix 30mm f/1.4 comes into the picture.

A look at the large front element of the Irix 30mm f/1.4

Irix 30mm f/1.4 features and specs

The new lens is based on the same optical design as the Irix 30mm T1.5 Cine lens announced earlier this month (see here) but with a different housing more suitable for stills shooting.

When used with DSLR cameras the lens should have focus confirmation and it does communicate with the camera so you should have EXIF info although this is a manual focus lens just like the Cine version.

The lens has a 140-degree throw, 11 blade aperture, full sealing, and a 86mm filter which is large and not very common.

The lens has an interesting feature called focus lock which allows the user to lock the focus in any position (we have seen a similar concept on the Tamron 150-500mm we recently reviewed).

Here are some of the specs for the lens:

30mm F/1.4 full-frame lens.
The lens has 10 elements in 5 groups.
11 blades aperture.
180-degree aperture ring rotation.
Laser engraved UV markings.
Dust and water-resistant body with 3 rubber o rings.
Min focus distance – 34cm.
86mm filter.
Weight – around 850g (depending on the mount).
Length – 105-107mm (depending on the mount).
Mounts – Nikon F, Canon EF, and Pentax K.

The new Irix 30mm f/1.4 – three different DSLR mounts

Pricing and availability

The 30mm f/1.4 will be available in October 2021 and Irix have yet to disclose pricing at this point.

Interestingly in its PR images, Irix did show the lens on mirrorless cameras (with adaptors)

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Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.